One of the most evident characteristics of the recent 50% stock rally has been short squeezes. Skepticism regarding the quality of the rally kept the shorts confident that stocks would retrench. And day after day we got short squeezes in the banks that generated market rallies. As summer rolled around the trend appeared to die and the financials went through a 3 month lull. That has all changed in the last 4 weeks, however, as 5 (mostly meaningless) stocks dominate NYSE trading. BofA, Citi, Fannie, Freddie and AIG have accounted for more than 30% of NYSE volume in the last month and are again generating overall stock market optimism today as all 5 stocks rally on no news or news that is totally irrelevant to the rest of the market. Will the shorts ever learn their lesson?
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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